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AN 



iMl^llltiWI 



ON 



DE WITT CLINTON, 



LATE 



Governor oi l\\e State o^ ^ew-\ork. 



okhverkd at th« heqckit ok a joint committee of the medical 
societt and colleoi of physicians and svrgbons, in 
the hall oe columbia college, on ibidat, 
11th jolt, 1828. 



BY JAMES R. MANLEY, M. D. 

. <^«H tJr can 



(*■■ 



V 



1881 



NEW-YORK: {2)^Mi^ 

PRIiNTED BY GOULD & JACOBUS, 142, ESSEX-STREET. 

1828. 

Or 

mmmmmammummu 






NBW-TO&S SSSDZCAZc SOCZST?. 

Resolved — That the thanks of this Society be presented to Dr. Manley, 
for his able and interesting discourse on the Life and public character of 
the late De Witt Clinton ; and that the Committee appointed at a former 
meeting of the Society to confer with a Committee from the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons for the adoption of suitable testimonies of respect 
to the memory of the late Gorernor, solicit a copy of the same for publi- 
cation. 

JOHN J. GRAVES, M. D. Secretary. 
July 14, 1828. 
Extract from the miuutee. 



i< 



EULOGIUM 

&C. &.C. 



-»Heige« 



There are occasions, when, whether we will or not, 
our language must be the language of sincerity, and if we 
are properly instructed, the language of truth also. There 
are times when the heart by the very constitution of its 
being, is prevented from making any unhallowed compro- 
mise with interest, and when prospective calculations of be- 
nefit cease to influence either our opinions or our actions. 
When called upon to do homage to the dead, the soul re- 
cognizes all the solemnity of the service, and will permit 
no feeling foreign to the duty in which it is engaged, to 
detract from the melancholy satisfaction which its reverence 
is calculated to inspire. The present time is emphatically 
such a season. We have convened to pay our tribute of 
respect to the illustrious dead, and to acknowledge those 
obligations to his memory, which neither we^ nor our chil- 
dren can discharge in any other manner, than by a frank 
avowal of our insolvency. 

Death in any form, and under any circumstances^ is a 
subject of serious contemplation ; the word itself affects our 
senses with a chilling influence, which not even a familia- 
rity with its real appearance can completely overcome. 
When called to mark its ravages in the domestic or social 
circle ; to witness the anguish and the desolation which 
follow in its train ; the ruin which can only be repaired 
by being forgotten ; the expression of sympathy will in 

1 



some measure, alleviate our sorrow. But when, as in the 
present instance, interest is widowed as well as feeling, and 
we are called to contemplate its triumph in the person of 
one alike loved, honored, and lamented ; of one whose 
public life was identified with his country's character ; whose 
public acts are the memorials of his country's greatness; 
when each individual in the community is made to feel 
that his own family has sufiered loss ; then it is that in ad- 
dition to all the sympathies which private griefs demand 
as the homage of our affection, every feeling which con- 
nects our own respect with the glory of the state, is made 
to do reverence to the virtues of the dead ; and but for the 
rebuke which our own impotence suggests, we would rebel 
against that law of our nature which is the absolute condi- 
tion of our existence. 

With private sorrows we may not intermeddle, their 
anodynes are not of this world's growth ; he who ordained 
the blow can alone apply the balm, and in his own good 
time the wound shall heal. But when a nation grieves — 
when a million of intelligent freemen put on sackcloth, and 
feel it to be their duty to cherish the recollection of their 
bereavement ; it is natural to ask, why all this circumstance 
of mourning.^ What wondrous influence has with magic 
power, transmuted every varied feeling into an expression 
of voluntary reverence and unmingled regret.'' Although 
the enquiry is easily answered, nay, although, to a citizen 
of this state, the answer is .obvious, it is not the less our 
duty to present its solution. It is not because the Gover- 
nour of the state is dead ; it is not that the Executive has 
been suddenly removed in midst of his usefulness, and that 
fears are entertained that the public service may be embar- 
rassed by the melancholy event ; no — no. New as is this 
fact in the history of our state, and it is the first of the kind 
xecorded in our annals ; our civil institutions have amply 



provided for such an emergency, and all such fears are 
groundless. But it is because that governor was De Witt 
Clinton, certainly not the less man as having occupied the 
station, but not the greater for that elevation ; one who 
could claim of right the honors due to the dignity of office ; 
but who, independently of that dignity which office can 
confer, challenged the esteem and respect which such dis- 
tinctions of themselves cannot command. 
^ There are men of whom it may be almost said, that they 
are qualified by nature to occupy distinguished stations 
in society ; men whom heaven, as with prophetic unction, 
occasionally sets aside for high and honorable uses ; who 
are calculated to be instruments of good almost in despite 
of circumstances ; men whose moral energies are of such a 
character, that difficulty and embarrassment are to them 
but incentives to exertion ; and these are they of whom a 
country may be proud. The characters of such are public 
properly; inheritances kindly vouchsafed to compensate 
the bereavement which the state must suffer in the loss of 
their personal services : it is as much, therefore, our duty as 
it is our interest to preserve and transmit them to our chil- 
dren. 

The biographical memoirs of our own state are not bar- 
ren of such characters. We have had our Livingstons, 
our Clintons, our Hamilton, our Morris, and our Jay — no, 
let me correct myself, this last we still have, but he is in 
truth the patriarch of a former age, standing as it were be- 
tween both worlds, in meekness waiting the summons which 
shall call him to his audit, that he may receive the rewards 
of a long life, well spent in the service of his God and 
country. But their histories have a superadded interest, 
which cannot attach to eminent men of later date ; their 
names are associated with the perils as well as with the 
glory of our beloved country ; and while we enjoy (he 



blessings for which they contended, both in the field and 
in the senate, there is little danger that we shall allow our- 
selves to be libelled by a charge of neglect to cherish the 
recollection of their virtues. With Mr. Clinton it was 
otherwise. He knew nothing of that fearful conflict in 
which they were engaged, except as the mutilated tale of his 
elder school-fellow may have interested the curiosity of his 
childhood ; his reputation, therefore, in no respect stands 
indebted to those circumstances connected with our inde- 
pendence, which give an additional lustre_to the names of 
our revolutionary worthies. It was acquired not only un- 
aided, but almost in despite of circumstances which, in 
others, would have materially diminished the ardour of 
its pursuit. His early life teaches a lesson which cannot 
be too often addressed to such as are prone to think that 
they have attained the end of their studies when they re- 
ceive the certificates of their scholarship ; his early educa- 
tion, although the best which the country at that time 
afforded, in place of flattering his vanity was made the in- 
strument to rebuke his deficiencies ; his estimate of himself 
was formed, not on a comparison with others, who although 
possessed of the same advantages, were far beneath him in 
point of acquirement ; but on the settled and wholesome 
conviction that those advantages if neglected, instead of 
conferring character, would put at hazard the amount al- 
ready attained. Accordingly we find that the years of his 
opening manhood, exempt from the taxation which pride 
fashion or amusement too often impose on young men 
with his prospects, were wholly occupied in the diligent 
cultivation of his mind ; and to the habits of application 
thus early acquired, was he through all his future life in- 
debted, for the ease, rapidity, and correctness, which mark 
almost every page of his varied writing, and which seem 
to have rendered his business, his recreation. 



In order to form a judgment of such a man, his pubhc 
character (which is all we purpose to consider) should be 
examined in all the varied relations in which it can be pre- 
sented, and although it is impossible, within the limits al- 
lotted to this address, so to exhibit it, we may offer sufficient 
data to direct public opinion in the enquiry, by presenting 
a sketch of his life, which however imperfect or deficient 
in detail, will not fail of some measure of interest. 

As far back as the reign of Charles the first, the family 
from which Mr. Clinton was lineally descended, was pos- 
sessed of such character and influence as to draw down 
upon themselves the displeasure of the powers that then 
were, for their attachment to the cause of that ill-fated 
monarch ; on which account during the usurpation of Crom- 
well, they were obliged to expatriate themselves. After 
various mutations of place and fortune, they finally settled 
at Longford, in Ireland, where his grandfather Colonel 
Charles Ointon was born : he emigrated to this country 
in the year 1729, and being a man of letters and a good 
mathematician, it was not long before his reputation pro- 
cured for him the appointment of surveyor under the colo- 
nial government. 

At that time, with the exceptions of the counties border- 
ing upon the Hudson, and the western extremity of Long 
Island, now constituting the counties of Kings and Queens, 
this whole state might have been properly called a wilder- 
ness, and the improvements necessary in a country so 
circumstanced, and rapidly settling, put such talents as Col. 
Clinton possessed, in special requisition. His intimacy 
with the Hon. Geo. Clinton, who by the appointment of 
the crown, was the Governor of the colony from the year 
1743 to the year 1753, no doubt contributed at a later 
period of his life, to give him an influence in the ^tate, 
which independently of such patronage he might not have 



6 

possessed. He settled in Ulster county, and educated a 
family of four sons and one daughter; of the sons, two, 
Alexander and Charles, were bred to the profession of me- 
dicine, and lived to practice it; they both died without 
children. The others, James and George, distinguished 
themselves as minor officers in the war of 1756, and again 
in the war of independence, in which each held the rank 
of a major-general in the American army: the latter was 
the governor of this state for twenty-one years, and subse- 
quently Vice-President of the United States, which oflice 
he held at the time of his death, in 1812. 

De Witt Chnton was born in 1769, at the residence of his 
father, Gen. James Clinton, New Windsor, Orange Co. in 
this state, and received his early education at a grammar 
school in a neighbouring village called Stonefield, under the 
care of the Rev. John Moffat, from which he was transferred 
at the age of thirteen, to an academy at Kingston, then con- 
ducted by Mr. John Addison. He remained here until he 
was prepared to enter the junior class of Columbia college 
in 1784, and was graduated a Batchelor of Arts, at the 
first public commencement held in this institution after the 
close of the revolutionary war, being adjudged worthy to 
receive the honor of delivering the Latin salutatory address, 
an honor always conferred on the best classic scholar of 
the year. On his leaving college he entered upon the 
study of the law, under the direction of the late Samuel 
Jones, a gentleman deservedly eminent in his profession, 
formerly Recorder of this city, at a subsequent period 
Comptroller of the state, and the father of the late Chan- 
cellor, now Chief-justice of our superior court. Under 
such tuition, with a mind well disciplined to habits of study, 
and stored with all the elementary knowledge necessary to 
the easy acquisition of his profession, he could not fail to 
make progress in proportion to the facilities which were 



aiTorded him, and accordingly we find him in 1790, prac- 
tising at the bar, with a success which gave promise of fu- 
ture reputation and independence. 

But a different field for the exercise of his talents was 
soon allotted him j about this period the collisions of 
party poUtics, which in a free country and within reason- 
able limits, are the tides which preserve the currents of 
public opinion in heahh and purity, assumed an aspect 
calculated to put in requisition the best talents of the op- 
posing parties. The federal constitution had just been 
adopted by this state, and although it was an event as aus- 
picious in its promise as it has been happy in its results, it 
was a measure which had to contend with much opposition ; 
honest differences of opinion existed, not so much however, 
on the absolute propriety of the measure, as on its expe- 
diency at that particular time ; and before those differences 
had been settled up, or leisure had been allowed to test its 
benefits, the French revolution broke out, and the sympa- 
thies of freemen who themselves, had but just escaped 
from the bondage of a foreign prince, and whose wounds 
received in the conflict had scarcely healed, were permitted 
in many instances to control their judgments. Thus were 
the seeds of the two great political parties which for years 
divided this state, first sown, and they flourished with the 
luxuriance of weeds in a soil peculiarly fitted for their cul- 
ture ; the one depending for its support on the above 
sources, the other striving to maintain the ascendancy of 
opinions, which their advocates believed were not only the 
palladium of our national strength, but the nation's chief 
security for the continuance of peace. Mr. Clinton was 
at this time the secretary of his uncle, who was the gover- 
nor of the state, and whose administration came in for a 
large share of party obloquy. Under such circumstances, 
with every republican principle which early education had 



implanted, strengthened by the respect and reverence which 
he entertained for liis uncle, he could not resist the oppor- 
tunity now offered, to avow himself an advocate of the doc- 
trines and policy ofrthe stare administration, and he became 
a pubhc writer on the popular topics of the day. He en- 
tered the lists of political combatants against fearful odds, 
as a large majority of the talents, wealth, and influence of 
the state were engaged in opposition ; nothing intimidated 
however, by the power and resources of his adversaries, 
for at that time the corporate patronage of the city of New- 
York was controlled by the wealth, rather than by the num- 
ber of its citizens ; he acquired for himself such a weight of 
respect and influence, notwithstanding the defeat of the 
party to which he had attached himself, that in a few years 
afterwards, upon a change of politics, he became by common 
consent one of its most distinguished leaders. 

In 1798 he was elected a member of the assembly of 
this state, from this city, and in 1800 was chosen a senator 
for the southern district, and a member of the council of 
appointment. In that situation it was his misfortune to dif- 
fer from the Executive, then Mr. Jay, on the subject of 
the concurrent right of nomination to office : the majority 
of the council being of one opinion and the governor en- 
tertaining another, not easily reconcileable at that particu- 
lar juncture, they each made their several representations 
to the legislature, which resulted in a call of a convention 
for the purpose of altering the constitution of the state. It 
was altered in accordance with the views of the majority of 
the council ; but whether it was amended or not, is not at 
this day a matter concerning which men may reasonably 
differ, as it has presented the best evidence of a truth which 
ought always to be obvious ; that a time of high party excite- 
ment is by no means the most favourable for the discussion 
of fundamental principles hi politics. From the senate of 



this state, by a joint ballot of both branches of the legisla- 
ture, he was elected to a seat in the senate of the United 
States, where he took an active interest in the concerns of 
the country, in relation to the differences then existing with 
the Spanish authorities at New-Orleans. His continuance 
in that august body, however, was short, as on receiving 
the appointment of Mayor of New- York, in October, 1803, 
it became necessary that he should resign it, the duties of 
the two offices being by law incompatible. In the office 
ofMayorhewas continued by annual appointment until 
March, 1807, when by reason of one of those changes of 
party which occasionally occur, and are more in appear- 
ance than in reality, and not inappropriately designated by 
the term political mirage, he was superceded and remained 
out of office eleven months, as he was appointed Mayor 
again by the council, in February, 1808. His term of 
office, at this time, was a little more than two years, when 
another partial party change again removed him, and he 
remained out of office another term of eleven months ! In 
February, 1311, he was again, and for the third time, ap- 
pointed Mayor, and he continued in office by yearly ap- 
pointment until the 20th of March, 1815, a term which 
included the whole period of the late war. It is worthy of 
remark that a political change in the state, in 1813, caused 
an almost entire change ii] its civil commissions, and in 
conformity with that rule of proscription which seemed to 
have assumed as its basis, that so soon as a party were 
in a minority, every individual belonging to It was disqual- 
ified for any official trust, (which by the way distracted, and 
1 had almost said disgraced this state for more than twenty 
years), Mr. Clinton would have been removed from office; 
but so great was the measure of confidence which the pub- 
lic reposed in him, that his political opponents petitioned 
their own friends for his re-appointment in place of his re- 

2 



10 

moval, so that the virulence of party was disarmed by a 
consciousness of his peculiar fitness for the station. The 
change of parties however was as usual, ephemeral, and 
his political enemies were soon relieved from the necessity 
of paying this homage to his character. An occasion such 
as war, could not fail to bring out in strong relief, the 
strong points of Mr. Clinton's character. At the head of 
the police of a large city, the resort of many foreigners, 
numbering among its inhabitants many alien enemies, and 
distracted by party collisions, rendered more violent and 
virulent than usual by the decided character of the political 
measures growing out of the state of war between the two 
countries ; with a large proportion of naturalized citizens, 
many of whom were at heart aliens to the interests of the 
country, when those interests were in opposition to their 
own, and a heartless support of the measures of govern- 
ment from an honest conviction of the inexpediency, though 
not the unrighteousness of the war, he found himself called 
upon to exert a measure of prudence and decision, of cau- 
tion, foi-ecast, and judgment, which, but for an occasion 
such as this, may have lain dormant during a lifetime in 
the absence of the necessity for its exercise. 

The late war between England and this country though 
sudden, was not unexpected; although all regretted its ne- 
cessity, few betrayed surprise at the event ; its righteous causes 
had long been operating to prepare the public mind for this 
last appeal to its patriotism. As far back as the date of the 
expiration of the treaty made by Mr. Jay, those causes had 
been acquiring strength and intensity'. Not only had the 
interests of the United States suffered immensely by the 
vexatious enactments of the Britisii government, which had 
embarrassed, and, in some instances, in fact interdicted our 
commercial intercourse with foreign nations, but its moral 
feeUng had in countless instances been outraged by the 



11 

impressment of our seamen ; and so pacific had been the 
policy of this country, that wantonness almost found its 
apology by mistaking our forbearance for a manifestation 
of weakness, and our patience for pusilanimity. To a 
mind such as Mr. CHnton possessed, the evidences of a fu- 
ture war were as conclusive as the result proved them to 
be just, he therefore used his utmost exertions to guard 
against disastrous surprise, come when it might. In 1808, 
all the influence he possessed was used with the legislature 
of the state, to induce them to make appropriations for the 
defence of this city, and he accepted the appointment of 
member of a board of commissioners to superintend the 
erection of works of defence. In 1812, when the declara- 
tion of war came, whatever may have been his private opi- 
nion of its expediency at the time ; he considered it the 
voice of the country pronounced by the government, and 
calling upon every virtuous citizen to sustain her in the 
conflict. When the embarrassed situation of the finances 
of the United States, did not enable government to provide 
for the defence of the city, he recommended to the corpo- 
ration over whom he presided, the bold but patriotic step 
of providing, under its own guarantee, funds sufficient for 
that purpose ; a loan of one million of dollars was acco*^ 
ingly opened, and Mr. Clinton drafted the feeling and for- 
cible address which was made to the patriotism of the 
citizens on that occasion : the loan was filled, and the mo- 
ney expended under the direction of the committee of de- 
fence. Although not a member of that committee, his 
advice to, and influence with them was of the utmost im- 
portance. 

During the progress of the war, considering, as he in 
one of his addresses expresses himself, " that illustrious 
achievements in science and in arms constitute the glory 
of a nation, and that patriotism will unite with policy and 



12 

justice in conferring the honors and rewards which are due 
to distinguished merit ;" he, on all occasions of our naval 
and military victories, used his influence with the common 
council of this city to confer civic honors on our gallant 
commanders. His addresses on these occasions, which 
were not unfrequent, breathed the purest spirit of intelli- 
gent patriotism, and while he spoke to those fortunate offi- 
cers, whom, on the part of the municipality, it was his 
duty to congratulate, the breasts of his fellow-citizens re- 
sponded every sentiment he uttered, and he awakened those 
patriotic and devoted feelings which were not only neces- 
sary, but essential at such a crisis, to a successful termina- 
tion of the war ; — party spirit was absorbed in zeal for the 
general good, and all hearts and all hands united with en- 
thusiasm in preparations for the general defence. 

During the last term of his mayoralty, he was elected 
lieutenant-governor of the state, in the place of the Hon. 
John Broome, deceased, and he continued to officiate both 
as President of the Senate and Mayor of the city for two 
years, viz. from 1811 to 1813. In the spring of 1815 he 
was again superceded, and deprived of all his public em- 
ployments except that of canal commissioner : the tide of 
popular or rather party favour, which in 1812 seemed to 
have attained its topmost height in his own state, from that 
time began to ebb, but it was only for a short season, long 
enough, liowever, to give him ample opportunity to digest 
und arrange definitive measures for the construction of the 
grand Erie canal which had long been the object of his 
sohcitude, and had occupied the attention of several diffe- 
rent legislatures ; although the project had been all but 
abandoned through the combined agency of fears, which 
distrusted the ability of the state to bring the work to a 
successful issue, on the one hand ; and the necessity of di- 
recting all its energies to a vigorous prosecution of the war. 



JO 



u 



on the other. The fidelity, the zeal, the industry and the 
intelligence which he brought to bear on this subject, not 
only changed the current public opinion, but fixed that 
opinion on a foundation much too strong to admit of its 
being seriously shaken during the future progress of the 
work. In 1817, Mr. Clinton was elected the Governor of 
the state, and at the expiration of the term for which he 
was chosen, viz. 1820, he was re-elected and served till the 
adoption of the new state constitution which took effect 
from the commencement of the year 1823, and shortened 
the ordinary term of office by six months. In the au- 
tumn 1822, he dechned another nomination, and returned 
to the pursuits of private life, holding only the office of a 
canal commissioner; from which he was removed in the 
spring of 1624, by a vote of the legislature, which the peo- 
ple rebuked in a most emphatic manner six months after- 
wards, by again electing him their Governor, and by the 
largest majority ever known in this state, in a contested 
election ; and he continued to exercise the office to the last 
hour of his valuable life. He died suddenly in the full pos- 
session af all his mental vigour on the evening of the 11th 
of February last, without having been at any time sensible 
of any premonitory evidence of approaching dissolution. 

This is a short and necessarily a very imperfect record 
of his public life, but it will be confessed that it furnishes 
the most undoubted evidence of the exalted estimate which 
his fellow citizens had formed of his moral and political 
worth ; his public character is simply a matter of obvious 
inference. Perhaps no man in this country was ever more 
uninterruptedly occupied in public duties from the age of 
his majority to the day of his death. Viewed in whatever 
situation we may, whether legislative judicial or executive, 
for each of those relations he repeatedly sustained ; at all 
seasons, whether in a time of peace, a time of war, or a 



14 

time of pestilence; in seasons of high party excitement or 
in a political calm, he always evinced those essentials of 
character which accompany true greatness. Some of these 
qualities he possessed in an eminent degree, and among 
them candour, decision and firmness of purpose, were not 
the least remarkable. He scorned to hold equivocal opi- 
nions and would leave nothing conjectural, which with the 
information he possessed, language could reduce to cer- 
tainty ; his state papers, his public speeches, and his offi- 
cial correspondence, whether written or verbal, bear ample 
testimony to this truth. He never took council of fear or 
betrayed the least measure of hesitancy when resolution 
was required; never courted a compromising policy, or 
aimed to divide his own proper responsibility. In all the 
various duties which during a long course of public ser- 
vice he was called to discharge, his promptness was mani- 
fested, and sometimes to an extent which a timid friend 
might construe as indiscretion ; and when with the best in- 
formation he possessed or could consult, he had ascertained 
what was duty, he fearlessly performed it, relying on the 
results to justify to the public, what his own conscience had 
approved. With a mind thus constituted, and possessing 
an excellent education which habits of industry and close 
observation had highly improved, it was natural that he 
should aspire to take tfee front rank in a society where such 
qualities were properly appreciated : accordingly we find 
him at an early age wielding the destinies of a numerous 
and powerful party, and controlling without apparent eflbrt, 
its united energies. For sixteen years he was a party 
leader, and as such possessed a measure of influence in the 
councils of this state, which no individual before him, had 
ever attained. It was a station for which he was peculiarly 
qualified at a time when party distinctions were based on 
principles, and the weapons of party warfare were open 



^ 15 

manly intelligent and fearless expressions of opinion ; and 
such was its condition in this country from the year 1796 
to the year 1812. The characters of the statesman and 
partizan politician may, in such seasons, both well com- 
bine in the patriot, although the copartnership must cease 
whenever appeals to passion, prejudice or sectional interest 
become essential to party success. It is then that the states- 
man and politician are obliged by necessity to part com- 
pany, and mark their courses on different charts, since the 
comprehensive views of the one, but ill accord with the 
narrow and exclusive policy of the other, and no human 
ingenuity can make them consist. Mr. Clinton early learned 
the lesson, which even experience cannot teach the mere 
politician, till it is too late to be of use : *' that a solid re- 
putation must be anchored in the good sense of the com- 
munity, and not be simply dependant on the passion or ca- 
price of a multitude ; that actions to be great, or their 
glory permanent, must commend themselves to the under- 
standing of an intelligent people :" and the truth thus early 
acquired was never forgotten; the conviction of it sup- 
ported and gave a spring to his exertions for his country's 
good, in times when all other supports, save the conscious- 
ness of the rectitude of his intentions, were swept from be- 
neath him. For many years he had to contend with the 
most rancorous opposition from men who differed from him 
in political principle, and when this opposition ceased, he 
was heavily assessed in another form, and paid the tax, 
however unreasonable, which distinction always imposes. 
With opposition in almost every form his experience had 
made him familiar but he feared it, infinitely less even in its 
most successful assaults, than the possibility that iiis enemies 
might find plausible cause to justify it. The results of such 
a moral, acting on such a mind can be readily anticipated : 
precisely in the proportion that he lost his party friends, he 



16 

aequired the support of the collective public. On his part, 
the prejudices of early life were dissipated by a more inti- 
mate knowledge of human nature, and on their's, admira- 
tion of his talents combined with the conviction of his inte- 
grity forbade the indulgence of those unfriendly feelings 
which were formerly called up by party differences ; so that 
for the last twelve years of his life, he was beyond contro- 
versy the most popular man in this state. And that he was 
deservedly so, requires no other evidence than the sponta- 
neous expression of regret on his decease which we have 
all witnessed, if we cast our eyes over the surface of this 
great state, where shall we find a spot which has not felt 
the genial influence of his talents, or has not received its 
proportional measure of benefit from his exertions ? If we 
extend our view across the mountain barrier which but 
lately separated us from a western wilderness, and behold 
by assured anticipation, that wilderness transformed into a 
garden "to make glad the hope of the husbandman ;" or 
transport ourselves to the shores of our inland seas and 
mark the rapid change from savage life to civilization ; if 
we trace the yet recent history of our literary, scientific, be- 
nevolent and ceconomical institQtions, and find the seal of 
his character impressed upon their charters, surely we need 
no additional testimony : since envy itself, in the indulgence 
of the most malign spirit of detraction, without adding the 
sin of slander to the black catalogue of her other ofi'ences, 
cannot dispute his claim to public gratitude. He loved his 
own state, and he had much reason ; it had been the asy- 
lum of his fathers in the days of their trouble; and it had 
been purchased by sacrifices in which they had largely par- 
ticipated : here it was, that he was born and educated. He 
had grown with its growth, and ripened into usefulness 
as it had increased in prosperity, and he had the satisfac- 
tion to know, for of this it was simply impossible that he 



17 I 

should have remained ignorant, that he had an agency in 
developing tfiose resources of intellect and wealth which 
are the pieseni foundations of its influence and power. But 
although his devotion to its interests was ardent, it was tem- 
pered by an expansive patriotism which would not admit it 
to be exclusive or sectional. His views were not limited to 
this state or to this generation, but embraced the welfare of 
the union and had respect to the happiness of posterity. 
He saw that its progn ss in the march of improvement 
though it vvas certain, might be slow, unless its resources 
were well understood and fully estimated, and he therefore 
gave himself to this object with a singleness of purpose 
which allowed no minor considerations to take precedence 
in his affections. 

The two great subjects which engaged his attention with 
unceasing solicitude* were the extension of the benefits of 
education, and the completion of that monument of our 
state's wisdom and mmiificence, the Grand Canal. In 
the first of these great works, thanks to that spirit of en- 
lightened legislation which marks the policy of this state, 
there were no difficulties to encounter, no prejudices to con- 
ciliate or to overcome : his task was easy, and he prosecuted 
it with an ardour proportioned to its immense import- 
ance: every branch of education from its principles to 
its hi& hest attainments ; and every avenue by which it might 
be ac -quired, from the district school by the road side, to 
the tialls of the state university, found in him the zealous 
friend, the hberal oatron, and the enligiitened and influen- 
tial advocate. Hut with the last, it was far otherwise. 

A water co'!*muni< ation between the great lakes and the 

Hudson had long been a subject of agreeable antiripatlon 

with many o^ the most judiiious and intelligent men in this 

stale ; \i frequently hnd been spoken of as h thing probab'c in 

some distant time, but the name of him who first suggested 

3 



18' 

it, is at this day a matter of conjecture, perhaps from the 
circumstance, that the design and its accomplishment were 
too remotely connected to make the claim worth preserv- 
ing: it is reasonable to suppose however that the first hints 
may have been derived from some intelligent director of 
the inland lock navigation company. Like most other 
great works it may have owed its inception to accidental 
suggestion. It is very certain that until the year 1808, 
the plan of a still-water navigation from lake Erie to the 
Hudson never seriously occupied the pubhc mind, although 
the project of locks around the cataract of Niagara, the 
navigation of lake Ontario, and a communication from it 
to the Mohawk river by the help of its tributary streams, 
were subjects naturally calculated to create and keep alive 
the enterprising spirit of all those who felt an immediate 
interest in such improvements. But let the n-edit of the 
design be awarded to whom it may, of one fact all are now 
convinced: De Witt Clinton has of right, the 
GLORY OF its EXECUTION : and when we consider the 
number, the respectability, the talents and the influence 
of the canal commissioners, from their first appointment 
in 1810, to the completion of the work, all are con- 
strained to allow that his agency has given to his cha- 
racter an enviable distinction. Perhaps if we except the 
committee which in June 1776 laid upon the table 
of the old congress that manifesto of public wrongs and 
declaration of public rights, which so far as a moral cause 
could operate, made this country free and independent ; 
there never was a committee more entitled to public 
confidence for their wisdom zeal and patriotism, than 
that to which this great work was entrusted ; and yet strange 
as it may appear, for six years they laboured with a devot- 
edness, an assiduity and a measure of patience unparalleled 
in a public body, without accomplishing any thing which 



19 

could give promise of a successful result. Mistaken inte- 
rest; a distrust of the state's ability to execute the stupen- 
dous work ; the conflicts of opinion in reference to the modes 
of raising the necessary funds; the discrepancy of the de- 
signs which from time to time were presented as the bases 
of calculation; and especially that all absorbing cause of 
solicitude, the late war between England and these United 
States, all tended to distract eflbrt, paralyze enterprise and 
procrastinate the period of its efficient commencement. Of 
all these causes of impediment, but one could be sustained, 
and to that, all submitted, because a^ a paramount object 
it claimed undivided attention ; the others however were suf- 
ficient to repress, though they could not extinguish the zeal 
which animated the advocates of tlie measure. In 1816, 
the war having terminated, it was deemed expedient to 
make one more vigorous effort In order to its accomplish- 
ment, and Mr. Clinton, then freed from all the cares of offi- 
cial duty other than those which appertained to this object, 
was selected to draft the appeal to the public in its behalf. 
This task he discharged in such a masterly manner, in the 
form of a memorial of the citizens of New-York to the le- 
gislature of the state, as carried the conviction of its value 
propriety and feasibility, to the mind of every person in 
the community who would be at the trouble to examine its 
merits : it consisted of arguments addressed to patriotism, 
to state pride, to interest, nay to avarice itself, if need had 
been for such an appeal : it was replete with information 
derived from authentic sources, calculated to strike the un- 
derstanding with the force of mathematical truth well 
understood : it abounded in facts, not only valuable as ma- 
terials of national history, but interesting as sources of 
national wealth, and contained estimates of expences and 
receipts, of capital and profit so plainly exhibited, as to 
place beyond all reasonable doubt, the expediency of the 



20 

measure considered even in the narrow view, of an imme- 
diately lucrative investment of public property. So natu- 
ral, perspicuous and conclusive was its reasoning that few 
were inclined, and none could successfully controvert its 
sound ceconomical doctrines. From ihe publication of 
this able paper, the public may date the effective commence- 
ment of the Erie canal, and to it we are indebted for all the 
glorious results which followed. From this time opposi- 
tion became torpid, zeal animated, and interest enterprizing. 
It is unnecessary to loUow out its history to its final com- 
pletion in 1825; it is sufficient for our present purpose, 
and to substantiate Mr. Clinton's claim to the merit of its 
execution, to note the fact, that in all the subsequent em- 
barrassments which attended the progress of the work, and 
they were neither few, nor of small account, he stood fore- 
most as its decided though unfee'd advocate, staked his cha- 
racter on its success, and tendered his reputation as its 
surety ; contented to pass for a visionary projector if its 
completion did not realize the promise, or the final result 
should prove disastrous, or disappoint expectation. He 
lived to see the consummation of the work, and the satis- 
faction derived from a consciousness of the success of his 
agency, was all the recommence he ever received. 

The public life of this great man was a continued career 
of honourable and arduous service, and now that he is no 
more, we wonder with the simplicity of children, that he should 
ever have been obliged to contend with opposition. His 
public worth, though acknowledged by all, could not shield 
him from censure. It was said that he had di personal par- 
ty, and if this be a crime, those who will cherish the recol- 
lection of his virtues will be among the last to wish him 
absolved from it, since it proves incontestably that his pri- 
vate life was as amiable as his public life was honourable 
and useful. In countries where power, wealth and here- 



21 

ditary rank can not only make dependents, but rivet their 
submission, this is an offence ag^iinst which every Uberal 
feehng must revolt, and it can only be tolerated from a neces- 
sity which the people cannot control ; but in this, where 
every man is proud of his respect, and jealous of his perso- 
nal importance ; where education is diffused, poUtical right 
well understood, and the highway to honorable distinction 
is so widely thrown open, that all may contend for it with- 
out the adventitious aids of rank or riches ; such a charge 
when true, conveys the highest compliment which even a 
friend could offer, and coming from his opponents, is con- 
clusive of his worth. Mr. Clinton possessed none of those 
worldly accommodations which are at all times calculated 
to make friends at a first interview ; he never cultivated 
them, he could not cultivate them; he had that moral inde- 
pendence growing out of a conviction of duty, and that 
moral confidence growing out of enlightened views of it, 
that they were to him unnecessary; he could not solicit that 
respect which he believed a full knowledge of his character 
would enable him to exact. That he had such a party is 
true, and the fact is one of the brightest testimonials that 
can be offered of his merits. 

It would be too much to expect that public sentiment 
should be a unit in relation to its estimate of our late go- 
vernor : he filled too large a space in the public view, was 
too much occupied in the discharge of duties purely execu- 
tive; the field of his active exertions, our own state, to 
whose interests he was in heart and soul devoted, has been 
too much and too long distracted by party divisions, and 
he in early life participated too largely in them, to allow 
of such an inference; but since the day that the father of 
HIS coUNTKY was gathered to the tomb of his fathers, the 
public expression of regret for a public loss was never more 
deep toned or emphatic than when De Witt Clinton died 



22 

— The fact is his Eulogium compared with which all others 
sink in utter insignificance. This is a testimony which 
as it cannot be mistaken, cannot be indebted to the sculp- 
tured marble for its duration ; this, the seal of approbation 
imprinted on our memories to be transmitted to our children. 
The lustre of his name shall outlast all frail memorials of 
his virtues, which the gratitude of a people may raise to per- 
petuate them. Let therefore, his biographer describe him as 
he was, our veneration shall embalm his character that his- 
tory may transmit it to future ages. His is the fame that fol- 
lows after : his — an evergreen glory, and the ivy that entwines 
his monument, which no frosts can blight nor storms detach, 
shall be its appropriate emblem ; for when the column falls, 
as fall it will, crumbled to fragments by the weight of time, 
there then shall still remain a mound of ever living and 
ever blooming verdure, to mark the spot where lies all that 
could die of ONE whom generations yet unborn shall call 
their benefactor. 



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